Good morning and Happy New Year!

Welcome to a new volume of Leadership Notes. And welcome to some new people who have joined our ranks. I hope you'll find these short weekly blogs inspirational and useful in your practice of leading people, (including yourself).

In my own practice I've learned to use a word as a guide for the year; last year's word was 'hope.' This year it is 'creativity.' And of course that has got me wondering, what do we mean by creativity? In the September 28 issue of Leadership Notes (see www.alisdairsmith.com) I mentioned a conversation I had with singer/songwriter Beth Neilson Chapman about creativity. She said, "Creativity is waiting patiently for the noise in your mind to quiet down." I think that Beth is on to something, that we need to take the time to be creative, to consciously make room for creativity in our lives. And I'm convinced that we live in a world that is constantly creating and recreating and we are a dynamic part of that process. It's not just those of us who can write songs or draw portraits, it's all of us, wired to create and recreate constantly. We need though to be consciously open to it.

This year I hope that you are consciously open to creativity, giving spark to new ideas, new life and new and renewed possibilities. This year I hope that you give and receive creativity towards abundance and life for all. And I hope that this year you give space for someone on your team to try something new for their own sake.

To a happy New Year for all people…